… “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

~ Robert Frost

2022 has been another tumultuous year for most of us.  I will have other thoughts on the year upon reflection. However, as the eve winds down, and as we are given to considering everything that has taken place, a revisit to the spiritual core of our association is appropriate.

For me, this year provided many memorable gifts; almost all driven by a purposeful God reminding me of my selfish insignificance.  This year I watched the physical landscape where my youth unfolded, forever changed; much of it erased completely.

The trees which once held the swings and forts for youthful triumphs, felled by nature’s fury and soon thereafter turned to mulch.  Their trunks and branches likely to landscape a coming McMansion for a person with no similar attachment.  And so it goes…. And so, it goes.  An apropos metaphor for life, and a not subtle reminder that we are temporarily living it.

If my younger self had known a clock was counting down, perhaps the kid would have paused under the shade of the old banyans and thanked them. Then again, it really wouldn’t be childhood if we carried such weighty concerns.  I am forever thankful I never carried that weight, and simultaneously today I cherish each breeze with a newfound appreciation for what I did not know.

Perhaps we have new challenges, perhaps our center is askew, perhaps our faith holds a new perspective, or perhaps our exhaustion weighs heavy as we rush turning to the next chapter…. hoping, praying for a better tomorrow.

It is easy to lose our sense of optimism.  Retaining a joyful perspective while everything around us seems mad isn’t easy.  However, if you accept that you can create something just a little bit better by making a choice, then you have accomplished a great deal.

Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we always have choices.  A new year’s perspective:

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Neil Oliver looks at the current media headlines as the New Year approaches, noticing it’s Groundhog Day all over again.  The video is available on the GB News Website Here and the transcript is below:

[Video Here]

[Transcript] –  New Year incoming – and still we are being beaten around the head with the same old stories.

In a few hours, we welcome 2023, but as far as our leaders and their lackeys are concerned it might as well be Groundhog Day.

I look at the headlines on this last day of 2022 and what do I see? Covid, Ukraine and Climate Change. Folk nuttier than anything found in a selection box are talking about bringing back face masks. God help us. Let’s remind everyone for the umpteenth time that Covid is now no more dangerous to most than the common cold. But still, the talk is of the pandemic, same old, same old.

I speak to people every day and hear real stories about real struggles. At first, when asked, “How’re things?” most smile and say they’re fine. Spend a few minutes in conversation though and the stories come.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson delivered a speech in Arizona at AmFest yesterday that hits home for many people. [Direct Rumble Link, at 02:21:46]  If you have not watched his full speech, I recommend it and will embed at the bottom of this post.

In part of Tucker’s unscripted remarks, a discussion about this current moment in the lifecycle of life’s storm and cultural chaos, Carlson noted his need to go silent for a few days and reflect on the bigger picture of our situation.   For me, that part of his discussion rang very familiar and perhaps, based entirely on my instinct that many are feeling the same sense of unease and trepidation, it is worthy to share why.

I was born a person of natural curiosity; intensely so.

Orderliness, natural alignment and the bigger principles of universal balance in all things, have always been important to me.  When things are chaotic and out of balance, my general inclination is to ask why.

What is happening that creates this imbalance, an imbalance ultimately from truth?

The natural order of things is so much a part of my instinctual makeup that as a young child my maternal grandfather once said and wrote to me, “son, you were born with an incurable case of curiosity, and someday it might kill you.”

Later in life I discovered the nature of that conversation stemmed from an episode where I refused to accept being taught imbalanced rules at school. My worried and intensely patient mom sought advice from her father, my granddad, in a letter I later discovered in his well-worn satchel of mementos.

Turning a phrase my mom wrote, “Dear dad, we are attempting to tame the shrewd“… Apparently, my childhood sense of curiosity was loved and cherished, but also worrisome in the way that only a mother’s wisdom could assess.

Granddad replied with a comforting dispatch to my exasperated mom, and then appeared in person a week later to help lend some practical support to my parent’s efforts.

In this context, ‘practical’ meant me and grandpa on a week-long fishing and camping trip right in the middle of the school year.  The timing was why that specific visit imprinted so memorably, yet the purpose remained unknown to me until much later in life.

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Last night our cat Rado (pronounce as in Silverado) died.  We think he suffered a massive sudden stroke.

All animals are unique, God’s creations, and Rado was a very special gift for 6 years.  A former stray, he came into our lives unexpectedly as a battle-scarred scruffy guy who had enough of the rough life.  So, six years ago he took a chance on us, and from that moment to this we were forever grateful for his presence.

After the initial vet check and neutering, Rado immediately sought to find his place in our family and was uniquely gifted at expressing thankfulness.  He lived his absolute best life for the past six years and was reciprocally cherished beyond all imaginings.

As his battle scars healed, Rado blossomed into his beautiful Russian Blue best.  A truly handsome fellow, and incredibly unique in cat disposition.  His heart was a feature of his personality that exceeded his good looks.

Each day Rado would check on his peeps, making his forever faithful patrol rounds to see what everyone was doing, a trait later called his ‘security checks.’

Once he knew his humans were in their appropriate and familiar places, he would go about doing cat things – napping and enjoying his best life, while remaining watchful and forever thankful.

It is said that pets generally will attach to one member of the household, and I have found that to be true in all cases until Rado.  He received a middle name because he just seemed to need one. Thus, in his second year, Rado became Rado-Thomas.

As if he were forever as concerned about equitable devotion as he was for showing appreciation, Rado Thomas loved everyone equally with his full appreciation.

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This one’s for you WeeWeed.

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BUMPED 11/23/22

Because less than great just doesn’t cut it for Thanksgiving! In our family, Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday of all. We go to the same brother’s house every year, almost an hour’s drive out to the country.  My husband comes from a family of eight siblings, and most of them have grandkids now, one even has a great grandchild.

As many of us as possible gather together since we will all be with our immediate families on Christmas. Usually, one or two people at least snag a friend who has no one nearby to celebrate with. Until a few years ago, there were four generations of us gathered to give thanks, but my husband’s paternal aunt died a few years ago. She was the last of his father’s siblings, although we often have a beloved aunt by marriage who still comes with her son and granddaughter.

There are often close to 20 kids, so my sister-in-law came up with the idea of a bouncy house years ago. It is the greatest idea in the world for a little peace and tranquility in the house as we gather and get ready.

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I’ve been sharing some of the challenges with site admins; at their suggestion here’s the latest from the impact zone.

First things first.  To establish the context, what made Ian completely different from all other hurricane recovery responses I have been involved in comes down to two issues: strength of the storm (155+ mph winds), and more importantly the duration of the event (8+ hours of peak destruction).

In normal hurricane impacts the worst affected areas generally experience 3 to 4 hours of chaos.  Hurricane Ian was unique in that it was only moving 8 to 10 mph and that made the storm damage completely different.  Structures that survived the first half, completely failed during the second half of the storm.

Almost nothing survived unscathed after 8 to 9 hours of that strength of storm sitting, almost stationary, in one place; nor was anything ever designed to withstand that duration of storm with winds from the South, then East, then West as Ian meandered inland from the gulf toward the north northeast.

After this storm, and having been through four previous direct impacts, including Homestead AFB, I would say this….  If there is even a remote chance you would ever encounter this type of a hurricane event, EVACUATE.  Do not try and hunker down if there is a looming possibility of having to rely on a structure to withstand 150+ mph wind for a full day.  Just leave.  With all of my preparations in place, and all of the knowledge I possess in storm survival, I would never attempt that again.

That said, I will put a better word image together at a later date to share, along with specific recommendations learned as an outcome of this event.  In the interim, just accept my most strenuous advice. If this specific type of storm was ever predicted to come near you, GET OUT.

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When it rains, it pours.

At the same time as Hurricane Ian decided to make life a challenge for Southwest Florida residents, the PayPal controversy erupted that blindsided the Treehouse.

As most of you know PayPal has been the primary processor for financial contributions to the Treehouse to help pay for a wide variety of site costs including server hosting, data processing and container costs, proprietary commenting systems, site engineers, software licensing fees etc.

As it directly relates to our conversation CTH has never had an issue with PayPal, even during our site deplatforming from WordPress/Automatic.  However, that said, the initial terms of service changes that PayPal announced, then retracted, that begin November 1st was beyond ridiculous.  It is not surprising that everyone was shocked at the proposed change in terms, and many want an alternative.

Moving forward, the critical issue for CTH extends beyond the actual processing of financial support and into the sphere of privacy.  One of the reasons CTH costs so much to operate is the foundational stance we take on user engagement and privacy; it’s not something I can ever, or will ever, compromise upon.

Almost all funded websites contract payment and subscription services to third party providers.  CTH does not like the security window this approach creates.  If we need to switch financial processors, now is the time to use this opportunity to close any security vulnerability.

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“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

1.) First, please READ THIS ENTIRELY – and the full text of any discussion you wish to participate in.

2.) PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC – do not post something unrelated to the specific matter and content of the thread subject. There is ALWAYS a daily open thread available for any subject you feel should get attention. Never place unrelated, “O/T”, or “Off Topic” comments on a thread unrelated to the topic. It is not ok to say: “sorry, O/T but”… or any iteration therein, it is quite rude.

The Treehouse operates on the ‘old school’ standards and practices of civil discourse amid the original blogging community, long before social media took over.

3.) PLEASE NARROW YOUR THOUGHTS – Quality beats quantity. Please construct your comments to target specific areas and not broad generalizations about the discussion topic at hand. If you have four or five disconnected points, break them up into individual comments; that allows people to respond to the specifics.

4.) PLEASE AVOID GENERALIZATIONS – Do NOT speak in riddles. Words like “he, she, they, it, them” should rarely be used. Spell out “who” using the name, spell out who “they” are at the beginning of every sentence in your paragraph; so that there is clarity as to who you are talking about. Please avoid using acronyms.

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My steadfast disposition when it comes to research, analysis and truthful discussion, is to write about and share information as it exists – regardless of our comfort or lack therein.  While this independence firmly isolates CTH from outside influence, and we go to great lengths to retain extreme independence, the absence of alignment with herd protection does -in some narrow circumstances- leave us slightly vulnerable.

CTH has always viewed Donald J Trump as the Ty Cobb of politics.  Perhaps, I would even relate the general sense and disposition of CTH to such a comparative analogy.

The truth has no agenda and factually doesn’t care about our feelings.  We try to ensure information and analysis found here always carries that same authentic truth.

The discoveries might suck but we move forward knowing our reality as it exists, not as we would pretend/wish it to be.

That said, and after twice being targeted by the very system we expose, and despite victories in both examples, it has been recommended that I establish a defensive fund.  Not because any risk exists, but more of an insurance policy against the type of lawfare that now appears to be an ongoing effort.

This website operates on the principle that truthful information should not come at a price and should not come through any filter. It never will, and I sincerely appreciate all of the support from readers and contributors who help cover the multiple costs of independent operations that are anti-fragile to the efforts of a controlling ideology in a big tech dominated world.

I pledge to you this.  Regardless of the opposition’s strength or influence, in the battlespace of information sharing, this website will be the last to fall.

Steadfast and love to all,

~ Sundance

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